The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1887-11-29
HOMEMADE BUTTER.
The Experience aud Methods of q Success
full Butter-Maker.

Ny experience in butter-making i:
that of twenty-five years, and when
inform the reader that my butter fol
that length Of time has always conf
mandsd 1t least two cents a pound
more than that usually sent 10 the
markets, it may not appear egotistical
in me to speak of my success. have
tried keeping milk in cellars and
spring-houseS; the former did not like
because of the liability of milk and
butter to take on the odors OF their
surroundings, and it is next TO impos-
sible TO prevent an accumulation OF
various unsavory articles in a cellar
not entirely devoted to dairy purposes.
A spring-house found almost equally
Objectionable. owingto the irregularity
of temperature, which causes the place
TO become almost useless in the middle
of the warm days, thus rendering the
cream difficult TO churn and the butter
often without flavor. For all purposes
of milk setting | have room excava-ed
about four feet below the surface of che
| ground; il is nine by twelve feet, and
the walls are built of square timbers
nine inches through and six feet above
the ground; the roof is of planks, two
thicknesses. On two sides of the lot
Com L have a ditch ten inches wide and
covered drain to carry off the water
with which the floors and drain are
covered every morning. l always let
the milk stand about twenty minutes
before straining, and then put it into
common one-gallon flaring stone
crooks. What is MIXED one day is all
skinned the evening of the next, and
the cream thrown together, teaspoon
full of salt being added to each gallon
of cream. Next morning it is churned,
before sunrise if possible. l use no
thermometer, as l can tell by the APP
pearance ami taste of the cream if il is
too cold or too warm. If too cold.
add warm (not hoO water and let
stand half hour; if too warm, be very
sure and add enough cold water before
churning is commenced. If | have
trouble in getting the butter to come or
to gather it after it has come, throw
into the churn an ounce or so of sailed
butter and the trouble is quickly rene
died.
| wash the butter with only one
water, handle carefully with wooden
ladle, give one ounce of salt to one and
a-half pound of butter, make into one
pound squares or pyramids, have some
white cloths dipped in strong salt and
water with very little sugar added),
and dried; wrap each pound separately
and lay them in keg or jar, and set in
cool place until wanted for market.
l have never had occasion to use any
of the various butter colors. / believe
butter carefully handled, will keep bet
ter and be more delicious TO the taste
without the addition of articles that l
have known to be deleterious. II nv
butter is not colored enough when it
comes from the churn, / set it away for
twelve or twenty-four hours, then han
die it as if just churned, and it is all
right in color. Living in a grass re-
gion, we seldom feed our COWS during
summer and early fall; when the grass
begins to fail we feed them little corn
in the ear, with occasionally a feed of
sheaf oats, and give salt once week; in
summer we give salt once every two
days. Our cows are natives. mostly.
| find the grades give larger quantities
of milk, but it does not average any
more butter to the cow than the natives
If make one and a-half pound day
from each cow, it is doing pretty WEI,
/ think, and that is what average the
year round. Some of my cows come
in in January, but most of them in
May and June. dry them off about a
month before coming in. so there is
not much time lost I have had no
experience with creameries, but iudg-
ing from the butter that is here called
creamery" ] am not favorably i'm
pressed with them. 1t has Ito me) an
insipid taste. as though too much milk
was somehow retained in it; and real
ly, for a moderate-sized dairy. think
creamery entirely superfuous. L
write q think) from the standpoint of
a majority of American housewives.
Many of us are limited in means and
limited in help, and we all know that
butter which is fsultless is rarely to be
found; but when tried and found per-
feet it is source of no mean income,
and / advise all farmers wives to try
and make a perfect article. Leave
creameries and butter colors alone. If
you manage your milk properly, your
butter will be better than if made in a
creamery, and if the color is sometimes
not so golden as you might wish, if the
quality is all right it will never fail to
amply remunerate you for all your
work.-Aunt Phoebe, tn Rural Nep
forke-.